Industry investors line up to fuel tech start-up market

25th July 2016

Daisy Stapley-Bunten

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CW (Cambridge Wireless) has launched its 7^th annual Discovering Start-Ups Competition, inviting emerging UK and international early-stage technology companies and digital entrepreneurs to win the chance to pitch their technologies and business ideas to a panel of industry experts and investors. The finals of the free-to-enter competition will be held at Deloitte’s London Headquarters on 19^th October 2016, where the hottest disruptive tech newcomers will present to senior executives from the likes of BT, Deloitte UK, Samsung, Barclays, Wayra, Silicon Valley Bank and London Business Angels.

The ten shortlisted finalists will get immediate feedback from the judges and five overall winners will be selected.

“Discovering Start-Ups is an opportunity not to be missed and last year 80% of the finalists received investment and funding,” said Bob Driver, CEO at CW. “To get in front of one potential investor is good for any start up, but to get the chance to pitch to 20 at the same time is an unmatched opportunity. The past seven years have been an exciting period for technology and it’s great to see start-ups take a leading role in driving the industry forward and shaping future trends.”

“Previous finalists have gone on to achieve great successes with their businesses and we are looking forward to discovering another crop of disruptive tech start-ups in his year’s DS16 competition,” said Abhi Naha, Head of Marketing & Business Development at CW.

The Discovering Start-Ups competition serves as a unique platform for start-ups to showcase their innovative technologies, network and help them gain exposure and traction. “It was exciting to see a number of start-ups developing deep tech to make the industrial Internet of Things and ubiquitous computing a reality at the competition,’’ said Raphael Scheps, CEO and Co-Founder of Converge, one of the winners from DS15. “The clear focus on IoT at the DS15 competition shows that tech has gone beyond the hype as companies start solving real pain points using connected things that are providing tangible value to industrial players.”

"CW Discovering Start-Ups Competition 2015 had one of the best collection of start-ups I have seen in one competition - truly world-class - and it was great to see GiveVision, a Wayra company selected as one of the top winners,” said Gary Stewart, Director, Wayra UK (A Telefonica Initiative).

In addition to the prestigious DS16 trophies, the five winners will each receive a prize fund including one year CW Founder membership one delegate pass for the 2017 Future of Wireless International Conference and the chance to exhibit, while three of the five winners will also each receive a ticket to attend the 2017 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, courtesy of Tradefair and UKTI. Other prizes to be announced. Other supporters of DS16 include Digital Catapult, SETsquared, St John’s Innovation Centre and Wayra.

The 7^th Discovering Start-Ups Competition (DS16) is now open for UK and international entries. The deadline for applications is 23^rd September 2016. Enter here.